I was always told that if I were being attacked, I should yell "fire" instead of "help he's trying to rape/kill/rob me". I guess the thinking is that if you're attacked, no one wants to deal with it because they don't really have to. But if there's a fire or something, there's a chance their own house might get burnt if it spreads.

you should also make eye contact with one person and directly instruct/command them to call for help rather than screaming randomly for someone to call the police as you're specifically placing responsibility on them to act. But chances are, most people are going to turn tail and not get involved.

Case in point, read the story of Kitty Genovese when you have a chance. In 1964, Kitty got murdered in her Queens neighborhood (Kew Gardens for locals) on a hot summer night. When she got stabbed, her screams alerted everyone in the neighborhood but no one did anything to help her except one guy who yelled at the attacker who immediately walked away. Then the bastard came back, stabbed her again, left and then came back again and sexually assaulted and robbed her while all her neighbors listened and didn't do a thing. The whole assault took 32 minutes and in the end, there were 38 witnesses interviewed by the police.

you should also make eye contact with one person and directly instruct/command them to call for help rather than screaming randomly for someone to call the police as you're specifically placing responsibility on them to act. But chances are, most people are going to turn tail and not get involved.

Case in point, read the story of Kitty Genovese when you have a chance. In 1964, Kitty got murdered in her Queens neighborhood (Kew Gardens for locals) on a hot summer night. When she got stabbed, her screams alerted everyone in the neighborhood but no one did anything to help her except one guy who yelled at the attacker who immediately walked away. Then the bastard came back, stabbed her again, left and then came back again and sexually assaulted and robbed her while all her neighbors listened and didn't do a thing. The whole assault took 32 minutes and in the end, there were 38 witnesses interviewed by the police.

People suck.

Exactly, whenever I see stuff like this, or like the video of that guy getting smashed on in a pizzaria I think of the Genovese story.

"When there's a fight in a Japanese neighborhood, The people get inside, close their windows and call the police.
When there's a fight in a Chinese neighborhood, The people get inside and close their windows.
When there's a fight in a Vietnamese neighborhood, The people grab a weapon and get involved"

I have various theories on why people avoid getting involved in fights in public. They don't exactly know what's going on and for all they know it could be a gang related issue and if they did get involved it could result in the attacker turning against them thus injuring or killing them.

Or maybe somehow the "victim" may have somehow deserved the attack (i.e. a mugging or a threat perpetrated by the said victim) and people might be worried they're standing up for the wrong person. There's a saying that goes, there's no such thing as the "good guy" in a street fight.

But in some cases it's just so ridiculously obvious that it makes me wonder why people don't do anything about it like in the "Kitty Genovese incident". You'd have to be somewhat of an asshole if you were to let an innocent young girl get raped and murdered if you had the power to stop it.

In Finnish TV show called Karpo (heh heh), they put up a hidden camera, made someone lie down in a public place and waited how long it took for someone to react. It wasn't a crowded place, but a place where would be constantly people passing by. It was like one of 20 people that reacted in any way.

In Finnish TV show called Karpo (heh heh), they put up a hidden camera, made someone lie down in a public place and waited how long it took for someone to react. It wasn't a crowded place, but a place where would be constantly people passing by. It was like one of 20 people that reacted in any way.

That's a classic psych study. The best version I ever heard of used priests as the test subjects. The priests got delayed by researchers until they were late for what they thought was an important meeting, so they'd rush out. The researchers had an "injured" person moaning and lying on the sidewalk that the priests would use to get to their next meeting. If I remember correctly, most of the priests went around the "injured" guy and one priest actually stepped over the guy.

Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Riding down the highway, yes, my back is getting stiff
Thirteen cars are piled up, they're hanging on a cliff.
Maybe we should pull them back with our towing chain
But we gotta move and we might get sued and it looks like it's gonna rain
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Sweating in the ghetto with the colored and the poor
The rats have joined the babies who are sleeping on the floor
Now wouldn't it be a riot if they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already and besides we got the cops
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Oh there's a dirty paper using sex to make a sale
The Supreme Court was so upset, they sent him off to jail.
Maybe we should help the fiend and take away his fine.
But we're busy reading Playboy and the Sunday New York Times
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Smoking marihuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

"Preparing mentally, the most important thing is, if you aren't doing it for the love of it, then don't do it." - Benny Urquidez